This “blog” started as an attempt to archive various random bits of information that I was sure I would forget, but at some point I started using it to dump links and do other things as well, occasionally even write what might be considered a blog post.

Thank you, that feels really great to hear! I did my B.Sc. from Chennai Mathematical Institute. Before that I was in Bangalore, and now I’m somewhere else. What about you? What about mathematics interests you?

btw, hi :) long time! where are you, what’s your gmail address? I’ll be at CMU doing my PhD from next month onwards…had met up with preyas, kshitij, arnie n rahul quite a bit in NY, and with Madhavan sir in chennai. do drop me an email with your contact – thanks :)

Hi, I don’t remember now unfortunately, but I remember searching for the text of the Agastya Samhita, and that quote was not present in it. Or maybe I searched for the quote and couldn’t find it in any text.

A general rule of thumb is that when a factoid appears without context, it is a sign to be cautious. What is the surrounding text around this quote? What does the rest of the alleged work discuss? In what context did the authors come up with it? Are there commentaries on this work? To what use was it put to by later society?

In this particular case, the idea of a battery: nowhere, even in the descriptions of opulence by Bana, Dandin or Magha, or even the fantastical science-fiction of Bhoja, is there anything resembling a battery-operated device.

For example if someone says that the Vedic Shulba sutras contain an approximation of √2, then the surrounding context shows why this is plausible: in the context of discussing various brick-altar constructions, there is a description of how to double the area of a square. And it is still in use. If someone says that Hemachandra etc. described the Fibonacci numbers centuries before, then the context makes it clear: there is a well-established tradition of solving problems of enumeration among the prosodists; the Fibonacci numbers show up naturally as the solution to a well-motivated problem, etc. And the solution is dicussed in commentaries.

In general, the meme of “lost technology” is overstated. Arts and skills and ideas can fade away, but material innovations clearly useful to everyone do not tend to perish.